The Caesar's Palace

It was the last day of my junior year and I felt great. I had wanted this summer to be the best summer of my life. If only I had known it would end with my life changing completely. It all started when school was let out and all the other students had gone home. I called my friends Tyrone and Javier over to my house to talk about plans for the vacation ahead of them.

         “So what are we doing this summer” I asked.

         “I think we should go somewhere exciting and tropical” Tyrone said.

         “What about Las Vegas” Javier said.

         “Well how are we going to get there my crappy car won’t get us down there without breaking down and you and Tyrone don’t have your own car” I asked.

“I’ll ask my dad if we can borrow his new mustang” said Tyrone.

“Well then we will still need money for stuff to eat and do when we get down there plus money for a motel” Javier said. “I’d need at least a month to come up with my portion of the money so if we go it’ll have to be at least a month from now.

So we all agreed to go in a month when we all had the money to. After a month of saving my girlfriend, Amy, and Tyrone’s girlfriend, Chelsea wanted to come along but I explained that we had only saved enough money for the three of us and we would only be gone for a few days. So as me, Tyrone, and Javier all packed our bags into the trunk of Tyrone’s dad’s mustang and said goodbye to everyone we all set out for Las Vegas.

“So where are we staying?” I asked.

“It’s called Caesars’ Palace and Casino” said Tyrone.

“A casino” I asked. “I don’t think we are old enough to gamble yet and besides we didn’t even bring the money to.”

“You guys didn’t think to so I worked some overtime and borrowed money from my dad to have a little fun and the best part is that I’m going to let you guys have some.

“And besides”, said Javier, “Everyone is always saying how we all look older. Your one ex-girlfriend thought you were twenty-three Ethan.

So as we joked all along the high way we realized we had arrive in the gambling capital of the United States, Las Vegas, Nevada. After we had parked the mustang and unloaded our bags we checked into the hotel and relaxed Javier and Tyrone wanted me to come and play in the casino with them but I was exhausted from driving four hours here so I decided to crash for the night. When I woke up it was still very early so I went down to the casino to see if Tyrone and Javier were still there. When I arrived at the casino, however, I couldn’t express the beauty. Slot machines and card tables everywhere and the walls lined with gold colored curtains. When I finally managed to find Tyrone he was doing terrible at poker.

“Hey, Tyrone,” I said. “Let me try it once.” I had always been good at poker it was one of my many specialties because I never lost. My specialty was shown that night because I won five times in a row gaining twenty-five grand like it was street change.

“Wow!’ said Tyrone, “If you tried you could make this casino go bankrupt.”

After he said that a waiter came by and gave us a cookie with flower-shaped icing on it after I ate it I can’t really say what happened next because everything went black. When I woke up I found out that three days had passed.

“What happened for three days?” I asked myself.

I went to see if maybe Javier or Tyrone knew but when I got to Tyrone’s room he wasn’t there. The same went for Javier. Realizing that they had probably gone to breakfast I headed down to find them. When I finally found them I asked what had happened to me the past two days.

“We can’t remember either,” Tyrone said.

“We do know one thing though,” said Javier.

“What might that be Javier,” I asked.

“We found a lot of money in your closet when we came to see if you were awake,” Tyrone said.

“How much exactly?” I questioned.

“Over twenty grand!” Tyrone exclaimed.

“Oh my god, how did we manage to get twenty grand in only three days?” I asked myself. “We have to get out of here now before we find someone who knows us,” I said quickly.

“That’s what I said to Javier right before you got here,” said Tyrone.

“I’ll go pull the car up; you two go pack our bags and get out of there,” I said.

So as I went to get the car Tyrone and Javier packed our bags but right before they got to the exit two guys from the staff grabbed Javier and Tyrone and threatened to kill them if the money wasn’t returned to the casino.

“We won this money fairly so we are going to walk out of here with it,” Javier said.

Now if Javier hadn’t said that he might have been able to get out of there alive because when he said that the guy on the left pulled out a gun and shot him, he shot him for no reason whatsoever. After Javier was killed Tyrone managed to break free of his captor he took off and managed to hop over me into the mustang and we took off. It was then when Tyrone told me how the guys had killed Javier and how the casino was owned by a crime organization and Tyrone had managed to grab the money from my room so we could get out of the country and start over.

“But what about Amy and Chelsea, and your parents,” I asked.

“We’re going to stop over at their houses and warn them,” Tyrone explained.

“I hope we get there in time,” I thought.

These people were going to find out who we were and where we lived and hurt everyone close to us. The only problem with that was that my parents died a while back so it was just me and Amy but we needed to get Chelsea and Tyrone’s parents out of there. So as we got back into our city I told Tyrone that we should stop and get his parents out of there first. As we pulled up to his big house he rushed in and explained what had happened and how they needed to leave immediately. At first Tyrone’s dad was angry because he thought we were joking but after Tyrone’s explanation he understood so he made some calls and he and Tyrone’s mom started packing.

“Ok now to Chelsea’s house,” Tyrone said.

We didn’t talk much on this drive because of how worried we were. So as we arrived at Chelsea’s house we knocked and knocked but no one answered and Tyrone’s cell phone rang and it was Chelsea. He answered and to our relief she was over at Amy’s and she was ok but worried because Tyrone’s parents had called and explained everything to them. We told them to be ready to leave when we got there. As Tyrone went to get in the car I told him I would meet him over there and that I had to do something first. So as he took off in the mustang I sprinted to my apartment and grabbed food to last at least two weeks and clothes and my keys to my car. So as I started my car I realized that it was a new car altogether and on the dashboard it had a note and it said:                    Dear Ethan,

You’ve been saying that you have wanted a car for some time now so I managed to save enough to buy you one. Think of it as an early birthday present.

                                       Love,

Amy

After I read this I realized I could not let anything happen to anyone close to me so I speed off in my new Scion FR-S towards Amy’s house. As I arrived I noticed that the mustang was not there. I pulled out my phone and called Ethan and he said that had a flat and was almost there so I rushed into the house and told Amy and Chelsea to hop into the mustang but Amy insisted she ride with me so when Tyrone got to the house I literally threw her in the car and had Ethan child-lock the door so she could not get out. After he had locked the door I told him to get them somewhere safe and wait for me to call. As they left I ran into the house and grabbed Amy’s clothes, threw them in the car, and started a fire so the casino couldn’t find out where anyone that Javier lived and that’s when I remembered that no one told Javier’s parents.

So I raced over there and explained that they needed to call Tyrone for directions for a safe place to stay and that once they left to not leave any trace of where they were. After that I raced over to the airport and bought four plane tickets to Chicago. I called Amy to talk to Tyrone since his phone had died and he said that he would meet me at the high school.

“Ok,” I said. “I’ll be there”

“You better be because Amy is seriously freaking out and we need to leave,” Tyrone said.

“I understand, I’ll be there,” I said.

I hung up the phone and got in the car and sped over to the meeting point. When we arrived Tyrone’s parents were there. I was shocked because we had told them to go and hide somewhere out of the city. I asked what they were doing here and they told me that they wanted to take Chelsea and Amy with them to Chicago but they had no way to get over there because their car broke down on the highway. I couldn’t turn them away and I needed to make sure that everyone got out safe so I handed Tyrone’s parents my and Tyrone’s plane tickets and told them to meet us in Chicago. They thanked us probably a million times before boarding the plane with Amy and Chelsea. Amy was crying because she thought she wasn’t going to see me again but I assured her that I was going to be fine and that she didn’t need to worry about me. Now it was my and Tyrone’s turn to leave we got in my Scion FR-S. We headed towards Chicago with thoughts of Javier and how things could’ve changed if we hadn’t gambled. From that point we both swore to never even talk about gambling again. We got to Chicago and started our lives all over again. I don’t talk to Tyrone much since he got moved to Seattle and married Chelsea but I know for a fact that we will never forget that summer.